I woke up this morning feeling fresh and ready to get busy with the days tasks! Instead of sitting down for a good solid breakfast I just grabbed a few waffles, buttered them up and walked out the door! Of course I don’t recommend this because not only did I eat some very yummy waffles, I also ate some fuzzles from my mittens. It is difficult to keep my hands warm and eat at the same time. I am pretty sure that from now on I will just wait until I finish breakfast before I leave.

As soon as I got to the shop I went right to work on responding to letters from all of you. Some of you may already have gotten your letters by now. I sure hope so. Sometimes I get a few days behind, but I always catch up before I have to hit the skies on the 24th!

Pol Eece stopped by in the late afternoon to tell me he thinks something strange is going on over at the stables. Well, to be honest, I had always thought something strange was going on, if it were not strange, then why would we be wondering why all the reindeer were sleeping and it only was affecting the ones at Christmas Town. Apparently Elf Depp U. Tee learned a crime scene investigative trick (maybe from watching one of the CSI shows on TV). But she could have learned it during the two years she spent visiting various police stations around the world getting some good input from as many places as she could. Anyways, she plugged in a hair dryer, slowly melting away the fresh fallen snow. The principal theory is – if there are foot prints, the snow will be more compressed and will clearly show outlined by the loose snow.

Sure enough they did discover foot prints. Foot prints too large to belong to an Elf. That of course pretty much leaves me, Mrs. Claus and Grinch as suspects. But the prints were too big to belong to Jessica, the prints were boot prints which leaves Grinch out of the equation because there is very little chance he would ever put is feet into a shoe, boot or even a sock. So I let Pol Eece take my boots after I got home over to the station to have a chance to see if the print matched and if it is the right size. Who knows, maybe it was me walking in my sleep. It is a Sleep Mystery after all!

Actually now I am a bit nervous! I have not always been the ‘perfect’ Saint, but I don’t do harm to others, so I would be really worried if it were my boots that made those prints. But nothing I can do about it now except continue on with the tale of Mistyberg.

(Mistyberg cont)“Shh.” Kenzy hushed her friend. “I hear something.”“Everyone quiet,” Cody spoke to the others as they pulled up alongside the two.Faintly, off in the distance they could hear the thrumming. But it was coming from in front of them, not behind them as they had expected. A few moments later Harley came running over the rocks and nearly ran right over top of them all before stumbling across Curt and tumbling head-long into the creek with a big splash. “Another ship is passing by on the north side of this island. A big red ship. Humans. Many humans. They were not stopping though. Just passing through. Don’t know where they are going, but you have to wait a while before you can move further up the creek. Right around that bend they will be able to see you. I know they saw me. I always say is better to be safe than sorry. Okay, no I don’t always say that but it is still true. Stay here until you don’t hear their engines any longer.” Harley was speaking even before he had fully climbed out of the creek. With a mighty shake, he let loose a rain shower of water from his fur getting everyone a little wetter.“Will they harm you?” Rayne asked.“Sometimes they shoot at polar bears for fun. I have talked to some friends that have been shot at, but the humans don’t chase us.” Harley said.(to be cont)

Yes, I do realize it was another short section of the tale but so much happened today that I didn’t want to have you spending hours reading it all night! If you are like me, there are always things that need to be done and not a lot of time to do them. Hopefully things will settle down in the next few days and we can concentrate on the story again. Sweet dreams!